The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has reacted to reports that its
presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, paid $30,000 to a United States,
US, lobby group to assist in the quest to reclaim his mandate.
A research group based in the US, Centre for Responsive Politics, CRP
had claimed that Abubakar was lobbying the United States government not
to recognise anyone but him as Nigeria’s president-elect.
CRP, in a report released last week, alleged that Abubakar was making
this effort through some Washington DC lawyers engaged in a 90-day
contract worth $30,000.
However, the former ruling party described the report as tissues of lies.
In a statement by its spokesperson, Kola Ologbondiyan, on Thursday,
PDP insisted that agents of the All Progressives Congress, APC-led
government were behind the allegation.
According to Ologbondiyan: “The motive is to use lies, fabrications,
threats and sponsoring of Atiku campaign posters to portray Atiku
Abubakar and the PDP as being desperate and ready to subvert the rules
in the pursuit of our mandate; and by so doing discredit our candidate
in the eyes of the judiciary and the public in general.
“This explains why agents of the APC-led government fabricated and
pushed into the public space, bogus and laughable claims that Atiku
Abubakar paid $30,000 to a US lobby group to assist in the quest to
reclaim our
mandate only for the Federal Government and the Presidency to turn
around to feast on the fabrications with threats against Atiku
Abubakar.”
PDP also urged Nigerians to hold Buhari’s Personal Assistant on
Social Media, Lauretta Onochie responsible should anything happen to
Abubakar.
“Moreover, it is instructive to state that the PDP and Atiku Abubakar
do not need any foreign lobby group to prove our case before the
tribunal as Nigerians themselves have been at the forefront of this
pursuit, especially with our overwhelming evidence before the court.
“We therefore caution the APC-led Federal Government to allow the
tribunal to judiciously carry out its responsibilities without let or
hindrance as well as stop their unrelenting plots to overheat the system
and derail the course of justice as such will all come to naught,” it
said.